Born in the UK and raised in Canada, Kazim Ali is a Queer, Muslim writer who is currently professor and chair of the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of 25 books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and translations, as well as the editor of five collected volumes. In 2004, he co-founded the small press Nightboat Books and served as its first publisher, and he continues to edit books with the press. Ali is also a certified yoga instructor, teaching yoga and training yoga teachers in Ramallah, Palestine for many years.

Shortlisted: Lambda Literary Award (LGBTQ Nonfiction)
Winner: Banff Mountain Book Award for Environmental Literature

“Ali’s prose shines when recalling his interactions with members of the Pimicikamak community and friends. Those concerned with environmental justice or the plight of Indigenous peoples will want to give this a look.” — Publishers Weekly

“What a privilege his fine book is, what a joy to spend a week in Cross Lake beside Ali.” — World Literature Today

“Ali’s lyrical, hypnotic storytelling takes us on an unlikely journey to a place that only now exists in his childhood memories: a remote industrial community in the boreal forest of Northern Canada. I was mesmerized by the voice of a poet who methodically and artistically recounts his once in a lifetime journey to connect with a Cree tribe called the Pimicikamak, the original owners and occupiers of the land and water that mesmerized him as a child. The human landscape Kazim Ali creates in his work, interweaving his own familial and cultural disruption with those of the Pimicikamak Cree, is intriguing and profound.” — Darrel J. McLeod, author of Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age

“[Ali’s] experiences are relayed in sensitive, crystalline prose, documenting how Cross Lake residents are working to reinvent their town and rebuild their traditional beliefs, language, and relationships with the natural word. ... Though these topics are complex, they are untangled in an elegant manner.” — Foreword Reviews

“A graceful, elegant account even when reporting on the hard truths of a little-known corner of the world.” — Kirkus

“Part personal narrative, part chronicle of history, Northern Light reads mostly as an in-real-time account of Ali's return to reacquaint himself with Cross Lake and its long-suffering yet gracious people.” — Star Tribune

“One of Northern Light’s greatest strengths is Ali’s ability to weave between his personal connection to the land and the history of the people who call it home.” — The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Ali places importance on revisiting his memories while also respecting, honoring, and holding space for the disrespected landscape where his now-demolished childhood home once stood.” — The Adroit Journal

“Ali weaves a detailed meshing of historical events, personal accounts, and his own experiences as he searches for answers to the series of questions that led him to Cross Lake and the Pimicikamak community.” — Glassworks

“In this latest book, he shines some northern light over essential questions about identity, power, governance, and justice for all peoples.” — Anchorage Daily News

“A poet and writer whose life and its inception challenges the way that we construct narratives of belonging to a nation.” — Terrain.org

“Northern Light will push you to consider what home means to you. It evokes the transformative power of revisiting a place from your past in order to reencounter yourself.” — Hippocampus Magazine

“The book reflects diligent scholarship on the long and complicated relationship between Indigenous Canadians and the institutions created by European settlers that changed their lives forever.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“[Ali’s] reflections on alienation and the environment are deeply explored in his most recent book, Northern Light.” — Sierra

“Ali has fulfilled the promise he made to the people he met on his journey, a pledge to “...share what I learn with as many people as I can reach.”” — Miramichi Reader

“I cannot pretend to be objective about how much I loved the book.” — Los Angeles Review of Books

“A powerful, thoughtful, and beautifully written exploration of the narratives that we create and that are created for us.” — Book Riot

“On every page, [Kazim] tries to decipher what it means to be ‘from’ a place, crafting a poetic exploration of home, assimilation, and belonging.” — Outside

“A beautiful and meditative burst of recollections and reconciliations. Blending together the indigenous history of the region with his own past and present experiences was no small feat, but Ali pulled it off with poetic precision.” — San Diego Union-Tribune, “5 Favourite Books”

“This lyrical memoir is a balm for the soul.” — Lithub

“Ali moves from writing a memoir to something else, something larger than the story of one person, one family, or even one place ... Northern Light transcends any one of these categorizations to become something much larger than the sum of its parts, a provocative consideration of what it means to belong to a place — and whether or not a place can ever belong to a person.” — Shelf Awareness

“Ali's book grapples with place, ecosystem, ‘home,’ and how sometimes home is not an identifiable place. Through Ali's memories of living near the Nelson River in Canada, he discusses the survivance of a community and concerns of exploitation and colonialism ... I've already learned so much regarding this community and place I had not known of before.” — Ecotone Magazine

“In a cross-cultural exploration of home, Kazim Ali faces the reckoning of his family's legacy in the destruction of indigenous lands when he is welcomed to a Cree tribe known as the Pimicikamak. Poetically and precisely, Ali gives us an example of the ways we can learn to reconcile with the impact of our history with a story that shows the ways in which water connects all of us from lakes, rivers, and across oceans.” — Riley Jay Davis, Next Chapter Booksellers

“In this slim memoir, Ali gives us a view of his childhood memories and the reality of what he finds upon return to the small community of his youth. Not Jenpeg, Manitoba Canada, but rather the Pimicikamak community. Here he learns of the damage done by the power company and the way the community members have responded and are dealing with the issues that damage has caused. Ali's gentle narrative points to the underlying story in a way that is both enlightening and enriching. Thank you.” — Linda Bond, Auntie's Bookstore

“In the search for home, Ali finds a home within himself, one made up of the stories and the people he has encountered throughout his life. ... He returns to his childhood home on account of the dam, but comes to discover that it is so much more than a place rich in resources.” — Event magazine

“The story he tells — of beautiful people, a unique community, and settler colonial dynamics — is an important and powerful one.” — Book Riot